She said “thank you.”
A simple gesture, a short phrase.
That Alethea Gittings said it to Daniel Penny on May 1, 2023, meant a helluva lot. Perhaps the most important thank you of the 26-year-old’s life — at least from my vantage point on day four of Penny’s turbulent manslaughter trial.
Gittings was on that Uptown F train back when Jordan Neely, a homeless man with mental health and substance abuse issues, boarded her car and launched into a rage, spitting threats.
She saw the events that unfolded, landing Penny in a courtroom fighting for his freedom. And in that harrowing chaos of that terrible day, she felt gratitude toward the Marine veteran – and even stuck around to tell him.
“I came back to thank Mr. Penny,” she testified, speaking in a strong but warm manner.
Because on that train, Gittings was “was scared s–tless” when Neely boarded.
Initially, she couldn’t see him but she could hear him, alright. She recalled him screaming, “I don’t give a damn. I will kill a motherf—-r. I’m ready to die.”
She then heard the thud of Penny taking down Neely, putting him in the chokehold that prosecutors say cost the troubled former Michael Jackson impersonator, who had a history of violent crime, his life.
The stylish mother of two, told the jury that she’s ridden the subway for over 50 years. In that half a century, she’s been “sexually accosted.” She’s been harassed by people getting in her face, “giving me a bunch of rhetoric.
“I told them to go away. The others made me angry. This,” she said of Neely’s outburst, “scared me.”
Those words, carefully annunciated, bounced around the room. Obviously, Gittings is not one to back down. To be intimidated. She’s no easy mark. But that day she needed a hero, a defender. The entire subway car did.
Her thank you led to a simple ask from Penny. Since she was there, could she speak to police?
Gittings, who was originally headed to a dental appointment, said, “of course.”
When defense attorney Thomas Kenniff asked if Penny – now facing up to 15 years on a second degree manslaughter charge – told her what to say to the police, she responded, “never.”
Kenniff asked if it looked like “Danny was squeezing his neck.” She replied no.
She said Neely put up a struggle, until he didn’t anymore. She said that he didn’t look unconscious. “More like he was spent.” When they put him on the gurney, she “saw him move a little.”
Another witness Dan Couvreur testified he was “terrified” that day and Neely did not easily submit to Penny’s hold.
“No it was very much a struggle. I didn’t think [Penny] had control,” he said.
Another straphanger, Lori Sitro, recalled barricading her 5-year-old son behind his stroller. She said Neely was lunging at people, “shouting in their faces.”
Sitro and Couvreur testified they didn’t hear Neely gasping for breath or saying he couldn’t breathe. Both said they were shocked to learn of Neely’s death.
But in New York City, where violent lunatics have been given free rein, those brave enough to become helpers shouldn’t be prosecuted.
They should be thanked. Just like Alathea Gittings did that day.
